STUDY RESULTS ATTRACTION

Fisher 2005

activity in the brain’s reward system when participants saw their beloved. That is increased activity in the dopamine-based areas of the brain. Also, the more passionate they were, the more active the brain’s reward system was.

Ditzen 2009

for both men and women, oxytocin improved communication and lowered cortisol, in comparison to the placebo.

Hazan and Shaver 1987

56% of participants demonstrated a secure attachment style, 25% avoidant style, and 19% ambivalent style. Correlation between parent behaviour and attachment style, securely attached participants reported available, attentive, and responsive parents. Avoidant participants reported unresponsive, rejecting, and inattentive parents. Ambivalent participants reported anxious, sometimes responsive, and generally inattentive parents.

Markey and Markey 2007

Participants tended to describe their partners in ways that were similar to themselves. Follow up study found similar results, however also found that the happiest couples weren’t identical in every way, so some differences can help balance a relationship

Fiore and Donath 2005

RESULTS – found that users preferred a potential partner who had a high level of similarity. *alongside Markey

moreland and beach 1992

male and female participants responded in similar ways. Participants did not find the women familiar, however the more of classes the woman attended, the more positive traits she was perceived to have. Also increased from 3.6/7 (no visits) to 4.4/7 (15 visits) in level of attractiveness.

gupta and singh

Found that married couples in India who married for love reported diminished feelings for love if they had been married for 5+ years. Those who had arranged marriages reported higher levels of love after 5 years

gottman and levenson 1984

Higher marital satisfaction couples were more regulated and had more positive emotional expression. The non-regulated couples were almost three times more likely to divorce, were more angry, less affectionate, joyful, and interested. Also concluded a healthy ratio for happy couples was 5 positive pieces of communication for every negative one.

Fincham and O’Leary 1993

Non-distressed spouses saw the causes of positive acts as being more global and more controllable than distressed couples. For negative acts the distressed couples considered the cause to be more global and controllable than non-distressed couples. Non-distressed spouses felt more positive and were more rewarding in response to positive acts, and a similar pattern was found for negative acts.